


You're My Favorite Canvas

by Empress_Of_Edenia



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Day 7: Scars, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Makeover, Shiro Ship Week 2018, made up alien planet, pre-established Shallura
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-31 05:30:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15112796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Empress_Of_Edenia/pseuds/Empress_Of_Edenia
Summary: There are times when Allura wishes her boyfriend loved himself as much as she loves him. Maybe she can help Shiro see his worth, in her own way.





	You're My Favorite Canvas

“Sometimes I wish I had your markings,” Shiro said as he traced a pattern on Allura’s arm.

Allura watched his fingertips follow the outline of it. Her attention was divided between him and the other paladins as they climbed the tops of lush yellow trees and moon-jumped high into bright skies. She regretted that their time on Planet Werylisd couldn’t last forever. Especially when the flora and some of the fauna reminded her of Altea. She distracted herself by focusing on Shiro.

“Do you?” Allura asked. She stretched out her other arm to get a look for herself, though she didn’t find anything new or exciting about the same swirls, dots and lines she saw every single day. “I suppose to a human these are quite stunning, but I’m afraid my wonder has waned.”

Shiro stopped his fingers at her wrist, then ran them back up the length of her arm. He followed the curve of the V-shape on Allura’s shoulder and encircled the little dot hovering above it. “If you’re sick of them, we can trade,” he said.

She began to ask what he meant, until she saw him bring his flesh arm close to hers. Its muscles dwarfed any that she had by comparison and made her look so tiny. Though what he really wanted to show her, she realized, were the battle scars on it. It was true, there were days when she forgot he had those. They were always at the back of her mind, but after a while they became an afterthought to her.

“Is that why you want to look like me?” Allura looked down at Shiro where he lay beside her in the cerulean grass.

“Kind of…” Shiro smiled sheepishly, letting his arm drop back down to prop himself up on it. 

Allura sighed, though it was a somber sound rather than an irritated one. Her boyfriend meant well, he really did. It was apparently a human phenomenon to make light of one’s suffering in order to cope with it better. Or so Keith had said.   


“Well, _I_ wish that you wouldn’t say those things about yourself,” she countered as she pulled her knees up to her chest. “You are beautiful just the way you are.”   


“Easy for you to say,” Shiro remarked. He probably didn’t mean to sound bitter either, but there it was.   


Allura went quiet after that, not sure how to follow such a comment. She rested her chin on her knees, peering up at the fluffy red clouds that drifted by like the worried thoughts in her head. It served no purpose to take of his moments of self-doubt to heart. If he could shrug it off after a while of stewing in it, then she should be able to as well. For Ancients’ sake, she should’ve been able to shrug it off sooner. But Allura couldn’t.   


She was hit with a wonderful idea while sitting there. “Perhaps there _is_ something I can do, after all…” she let her words trail off, glancing at Shiro but mostly muttering to herself.   


“Princess?” Shiro asked.   


But Allura was already getting to her feet and dashing through the open field. She ran through the gate of the castleship, then vanished into her master bedroom. The mice awoke from their mid-afternoon nap as soon as she entered, trailing after her to see what the fuss was about. A couple sat on her shoulders while she rummaged around.   


Allura had to comb through several drawers on her vanity and most of the shelves in her utility closet before she found what she was looking for. “Ah, there you are,” she said, brushing some dust off of the jar in her hands. The contents of it were as good a quality as they were ten-thousand years ago. Allura could tell by the smell of it alone.   


Shiro was in the same spot she left him in by the time she and the mice had finished up in the castleship. “What’s that?” he asked, pointing to the jar.   


“This is called gliming, a type of paint made from minerals found in Altean soil,” Allura explained as she sat back down beside him.   


“You’re seriously going to paint markings on me?” Shiro raised an eyebrow.   


“I most certainly am.” She held out her hand toward him. “Give me your arm, please.”   


He hesitated for a minute before sitting upright and handing it over. Because he wore shorter sleeves nowadays, she didn’t need to worry about rolling them up.   


Allura took the paintbrush she’d grabbed while in her bedroom and started working on the largest scar, a jagged pink X scrawling across his bicep. She filled it in with purple, turning her wrist as she got to the ends of it. It looked a lot less rough when she was done, taking on more of a soft S shape. Allura used it as a guide to draw more of them. “I was quite the artist when I was a child,” she said.   


“You still are,” Shiro insisted, pointing to his bicep. “This is a pretty good river.”   


Allura laughed. “It’s not a river, it’s… well, I suppose it looks a little like one.”   


“Did you ever save the pictures you drew?” he inquired further.   


“I might’ve, but I have not seen them in eons. There is not much time to be had for art when you’re training to be an empress.” She wondered if any had survived, now that she was thinking about those bygone days. 

“On earth, kids bring their drawings home from school and hang them up on a refrigerator,” Shiro said. “I was wondering if Alteans do something similar.” 

Her heart warmed whenever he referred to all things Altean in present-tense. “Food goo is not perishable, so no refrigerators. But sometimes Father would keep my artwork on his desk if he really liked it. He always praised my klanmural paintings.”   


While she transformed the rest of his scars, the mice were getting into the creative spirit as well. They dipped their paws and the tips of their tails into the jar of gliming before scurrying toward Shiro. Platt made himself comfortable in the crook of Shiro’s arm, stamping pawprints in between the swirls, while Chulatt and Plachu took advantage of their smaller size by crawling around the surface. The girls left their own prints in the harder-to-reach places, dragging their tails behind them to help Allura with more intricate designs.   


“Oh, that looks wonderful!” Allura clasped her hands together, paintbrush still in it, while she and the mice sat back to admire their hard work. Gone were the reminders of a past that couldn’t be forgotten, replaced with ones to let Shiro know that every part of him was special to her. Shame that gliming wasn’t permanent.   


Shiro turned his decorated arm every which way. “Great job, you guys. These look really nice. I like how shiny this stuff is, too.” He watched the markings sparkle in the sunlight.   


“That is my favorite thing about gliming,” Allura said. “Only on Altea will you find paint with crushed crystal fragments in it.”   


The mice, satisfied that they’d done their part, nestled in the white waterfall of her hair and resumed their nap. Their soft breathing tickled her neck.   


Allura then scooted closer to Shiro, so much closer that she was practically in his lap. She dipped her brush a fourth time for an extra thick glob and reached up to fill in the scar going across his nose. The bristles were inches away when she stopped herself, having second thoughts about this one.   


Shiro smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Gotta finish what you started, Princess. Besides, the tissue here is mostly scabbed over.” 

With his blessing, she put all of her love into this next masterpiece. Her hand kept absolutely still as the brush danced on the tissue. Always careful not to swipe or push the tip in too hard, despite the fact that he didn’t seem to feel a thing the entire time. She placed a whirlpool on either end, just below his nose where the nostrils were.   


“Thanks for this, babe-” he started to say.   


“Wait, I’m not finished,” she said when he was about to get up. “No Altean is complete without two things.” 

Allura used up the last of the glob on her brush to paint a couple of crescent moons underneath both of his eyes. She screwed the lid back onto the jar once her canvas was full of purple markings and pressed her lips to his own.   


Shiro pressed right back. “Aww, I even get kisses for letting you paint all over me?”   


“Of course. The gliming doesn’t work if I leave those out,” Allura said.   


Shiro shook his head, a skeptical but knowing grin on his face. “That just sounds like an excuse to kiss me, but I’ll take it.”   


Allura went in for another one, then pulled away to touch their foreheads together.   


“I really mean it,” Shiro said. “This was so thoughtful of you to do.” 

“I’m glad it made you happy. If you ever want to do this again, just let me know,” Allura said, caressing his head in her hands.   


“Definitely,” Shiro said.   


Allura slid her hands from his cheeks and up toward the sides of his head. “Now, if we could only do something about these ears.”   


They both shared a laugh over that.

**Author's Note:**

> A huge thank you to K-Lionheart for beta reading this fic. Without your input (and ofc our countless hours of practice) writing Shallura would still be a nightmare and a half for me. You're the best. <333


End file.
